Now I surely will not plague you
With such words as plaque and ague.
But be careful how you speak:
Say break and steak, but bleak and streak;
Cloven, oven, how and low,
Script, receipt, show, poem, and toe.

“The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.” ~Mark Twain, [pen name for Samuel Clemens], American author and humorist, (1835-1910)~

We must polish the Polish furniture.
He could lead if he would get the lead out.
The farm was used to produce produce.
The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.
The soldier decided to desert in the desert.
This was a good time to present the present.
A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.
When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.
I did not object to the object.
The insurance was invalid for the invalid.
The bandage was wound around the wound.
They were too close to the door to close it.
The buck does funny things when the does are present.
They sent a sewer down to stitch the tear in the sewer line.
To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.
The wind was too strong to wind the sail.
After a number of injections, my jaw got number.
Upon seeing the tear in my clothes, I shed a tear.
I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.
How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

Life is like playing chess with chessmen who each have thoughts and feelings and motives of their own.

I must protest about these noisy protest marches.
The monkey swung supply through the trees to reach the supply of food.
The pervert tried to pervert the course of justice.
She drinks sake for the sake of her health.
He records many records.
The irony was that the irony substance was more valuable than gold.
The Blessed Virgin Mary was blessed by God.
Visitors to the theme park can take their recreation in a recreation of a prehistoric forest.
There are several different bases on which he bases his argument.
He must have the patience of Job to do that job.
Every minute there is a minute change in the pattern.
The piano sonata alternates between forte and piano.
After bathing the baby, she went bathing.
The curate was asked to curate the exhibition.
I am content with the content of this article.
The criminal was dogged by the dogged detective.
The woman moped after her moped was stolen.
The message that the enemy had been routed was routed via France.
The Holocaust denier was strangled with a 20 denier stocking.
Iodine is listed in the periodic table and produces periodic acid.

Audiendus,
Either regional pronunciation variations or plain ignorance on my part give me trouble with the following words that are spelled the same but should perhaps be pronounced differently. I pronounce them the same in every instance. My local dialect of Southern merged with Texan, even in the college educated version, dictates this to me. The one about bathing leaves me clueless as to its meaning much less its pronunciation. Since we don’t have a standard way to spell things as they are pronounced without special markings on the letters, I don’t know if you can explain the differences in pronunciation to me, but please try. I have a makeshift pronunciation method that follows. The only difference I can understand is the one using routed. I would pronounce both instances the same, something like “RAU-tid”. You probably pronounce the second instance “RUU-tid”. Don’t say the latter if you are in Texas or you will be considered a furriner or, worse, a Yankee.
On irony, if I spoke Appalachian English I would call the second instance “OWRN-ee” and I wouldn’t know the meaning of the first instance. Since I have some book larnin’, I do know what the first instance means. I would say “II-ruh-nee” for both instances.

These are the sentences I question:
The irony was that the irony substance was more valuable than gold.
The piano sonata alternates between forte and piano.
After bathing the baby, she went bathing.
The message that the enemy had been routed was routed via France.

Audiendus, none of your pronunciations hold true in the American south. I've never heard irony without the r. Piano always sounds the same (short a as in mat), since its full name is pianoforte. Bathing is always long a as in May, and when we speak of showering or soaking in a tub it's still a long a. If we're in the ocean, lake, or pool, it's prounounced swimming. Rout and route have the same sound as in cow, except some misplaced Yankees do pronounce it as root.

Do you ever use "bath" as a verb, or is it always "bathe"? In British English, to bath someone means to give them a full wash in a tub; to bathe them could mean either that or some more limited kind of wash. Hence the different pronunciations of "bathing".

For the American pronunciation of "route", Wiktionary gives both the "root" and "rout" forms (in that order).

I don't know that I've ever heard irony used to refer to actual metal. I doubt seriously that someone in our neighborhood would drop the r. We mispronounce iron by changing the i to a, as in arm - thus arn. We never use bath as a verb, only bathe, and the latter is never a synonym for swimming. I play piano, have sung and directed choirs, but have always pronounced piano with a short (flat) a, whether referring to the instrument or p in the directions. It does become a schwa in pianissimo. About 10-1 I hear rout, not root.
On the British side, the Englanders I've known all say shedule for schedule. Here it's always a hard c, like k - thus, pronounced skedule. And then there's Cockney!

Thank you for the effort to enlighten me Audiendus. I still cannot be sure how you pronounce some of these words. I spent a lot of time working in England, but it was near Northampton, so I suppose that doesn’t count. I notice that the further north I go in England the more easily I understand the local dialect. Thanks for the Southern (USA) confirmation Perry Lassiter. It is true that England English and American English diverge at many points. Neither is wrong. We just speak differently. I think the pond that separates us may have something to do with it. But never doubt, Audiendus, that I am an anglophile.

I am aware of the IPA. As with many Americans, I am pretty provincial, and I am also lazy. Though I have studied German and Spanish and am interested in language in general, I am actually monolingual. I believe the English language is the greatest artifact God has allowed the human race to create. Other languages are good, especially for comparison purposes, the study of etymology, and, naturally, for native speakers. Living in Texas as I do, I have to know some Spanish. I speak a sort of “Tex-Mex”. I call it “trabaho palaver” or “work talk”. Don’t look this up in any dictionary. It is not there. Do you know Spanish? Do you know that Spanish grammar is practically impossible to learn? Well, it is for me. If I remember right, there are sixteen regular verb cases! For the most part I am an Anglophile and an Anglophone. IPA is difficult. My Chinese students have another pronunciation system for English words. It is difficult.

As an ESL teacher to Chinese students, I need to be able to pronounce Mandarin words written with Roman letters. I am not a master of it but I do fairly well. This is mostly so I can pronounce my student’s names.

I want an English pronunciation guide that is done with the exclusive use of the twenty-six letters of the alphabet. Actually, we don’t need them all; c and x are not very useful. I have created such a system but I am not ready to share it publicly. It still needs work. My international students use it and seem to like it. It is something like the one Dr. Beard uses. I do not have the key to Dr. Beard’s pronunciation scheme so it is not always useful to me. Has he published a key?